The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.
The subject that the Lord has laid upon
my heart is this.
Frustrations can be fatal.
Frustration is another word for hopelessness.
Sometimes in our lives we become frustrated.
I believe the Bible teaches that frustration is
dangerous.
And as Bible believers, we should ask the
Lord to help us not become frustrated.
Sometimes you become frustrated at your job.
Sometimes you can become frustrated in your educational
pursuits, at home, in the marriage.
You can be frustrated sometimes with yourself.
I don't know, but I've been aggravated at
me before because me didn't do right.
And get frustrated with yourself or try to
improve or just try to lose five pounds
sometimes.
I mean, it doesn't have to be really
something big.
But you can get frustrated.
You can be frustrated in your spiritual growth.
How we respond to life's frustrations, I believe,
can affect our future and it can touch
those around us.
I've never felt so impressed to encourage people
to remember that every person has a sphere
of influence.
I think that's one of the things we've
lost off our society is that we are
accountable for our actions.
We are responsible for our behavior and how
we behave and how we act affects the
lives of other people.
Not only our family and our friends, but
there's an outcome to that.
But I really believe that we must be
positive when we encounter the downturns in life.
Every now and then, you are going to
have a bad day.
You're going to have a bad week, sometimes
a bad month, some of you a bad
life.
But I mean, there are going to be
those days that you are apparently handed lemons
for life.
But I am convinced that the Word of
God, not possibility thinking, not someone's positive spin,
not a Carnegie course, but that we should
take the lemons of life and we really
should make lemonade.
That we have a God who is in
charge and He's sovereignly aware of our situation
and He knows where we are.
And I believe it gives great comfort to
us.
I can give you personal testimony today that
during the illness of my wife, that one
of the things that has helped my sanity
is the fact that I know God is
in charge.
I do not always understand what He's doing.
I do not always know His purpose or
plan.
But I do know He's God and I
do know He's in charge.
And some days that may be all you
have that makes any sense, is the fact
that God is in charge.
If you'll notice with me in Deuteronomy 34
and verse number 4, the reading of God's
Word.
If you have a Schofield Bible, it will
be page 255, Deuteronomy 34 and verse number
4.
And the Lord said unto him, This is
the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give
it unto thy seed.
I have caused thee to see it with
thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over
thither.
Verse number 5, So Moses the servant of
the Lord died there in the land of
Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
And he buried him in a valley in
the land of Moab over against Bethphor.
But no man knoweth of his scepter unto
this day.
And Moses, look at verse 7, And Moses
was a hundred and twenty years old when
he died.
His eyes were not dim, nor his natural
force abated.
Moses was not sick.
Moses did not die of a disease.
I believe Moses died of frustration.
I offer you for your consideration today that
the frustration of Moses' life proved to be
fatal.
And it shortened his days on this planet,
shorter than what God had planned for him.
Now, the best I can understand the Bible,
there are two categories of people here today.
God does not have categories like humans do.
God does not have rich and poor.
God does not have black and white.
God doesn't even have Republicans or Democrats.
God just has saved and unsaved.
The only two categories that God's even aware
that matters in eternity is the fact that
there is the family of faith and there's
the family that follows the adversary, the devil
himself.
You're either in the family of God or
you're against the family of God.
You say, well, I'm a pretty good person.
Well, the sad part is I cannot find
any Bible for pretty good people going to
heaven.
Merit badges we're not earning.
The Bible is clear that there are two
categories of people.
They're either saved or lost.
And God says that we need to know
what category that we're in.
Now, this morning, if you are saved and
you have believed and trusted in the Lord
Jesus Christ and you've confessed your sins and
you've asked Him to forgive you of your
sins and you want to be born again,
start your life over anew.
Isn't that wonderful?
We can make a disaster out of our
lives and Jesus can come by and pick
up the pieces and make us all over
anew.
I like that.
And so, even if you are saved, redeemed,
a child of God, you can become frustrated
in life.
And God says if you've never been saved,
you obviously can become frustrated in life.
But your frustration becomes even worse because you
do not have the help of the Lord
God Almighty.
You do not have Him helping in the
frustrations of life.
Our lives can get so messed up that
you can look back over a year and
say, how could I get in this kind
of mess?
How could I have this kind of disaster
in my life?
But we can do that.
We don't even have to go off to
school to learn how to do it.
We just have a way of messing up
things.
But you know what?
God said, I want to help you with
the frustrations of your life.
And that's why I love serving the Lord.
That's why I think it's exciting.
And I believe we need to be positive
when we have those downturns of life.
You say, well, Pastor, you're just going to
give us a message on positive thinking.
Possibility thinking.
No, I offer to you that God's positive
sides of truth has always been here long
before there was anyone writing a book about
positive thinking or possibility thinking.
What more positive position can you have than
to know that your sins have been forgiven
and that God is on your side?
And for us not to be positive about
that, I think, is doing a disservice to
the God that gave His Son to die
for us.
So we should be.
And I'm not talking about someone's psychological salvation.
I'm talking about not deciding your way into
the kingdom.
But I'm talking about after salvation, you should
have some sunshine in your life that you
know God gave His Son to pay your
sin debt and that you have life eternal
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was preaching in a prison in the
eastern part of the state and it was
one of those maximum security units where they
have lifers and folks that may even end
up on death row.
It's where you have to sign a release
form to go back even in there to
preach that you go in at your own
risk.
They cannot guarantee your safety.
None of the guards even carry weapons.
They don't even carry a baton or a
gun because it is just a place where
you go in, you go in at your
own risk.
And I remember signing that release form and
going inside to minister.
And boy, God just moved in.
We had people get saved that day.
We had men get right with the Lord.
And there seemed to be a real hunger.
Some were even wanting Bibles.
And I came out and I asked the
guard, I said, do you have a chaplain?
And he said, yeah.
Yeah, we got one.
So that made me nervous.
So I said, well, I want to go
to his office.
These guys are hungry spiritually.
They want to be fed.
So I went to the chaplain's office and
I said, you know, we had a little
bit of revival in there today.
I said, we had several men saved.
We had some folks rededicating their lives.
There's a real hunger.
They want some Bibles and things.
And he said, well, I just really think
we have a philosophical difference.
And I said, we do.
You're a preacher.
I'm a preacher.
People needing spiritual help and guidance.
He said, well, it's not my job to
go inside there and sermonize and to say
what's right and what's wrong and that there's
a God and there's a devil and there's
a heaven and there's a hell.
He said, my job is to go in
there because we know that inside every man
is a spark of righteousness, a spark of
goodness.
And I'm to go in there to fan
that and that will one day burst forth
into a flame of a new light.
He said, it's much like the seed of
a flower.
It's all planted in there.
And if I'll go by and water it
long enough, one day it'll bloom forth.
And I said, sir, could I ask you
a question?
And he said, sure.
And I said, have you ever been saved
by the grace of God?
And I wasn't being facetious.
I just wondered if the old boy had
ever been to the cross and had a
drink of newness of life because it's not
something I fan.
It's not something I do.
It's something God did.
And God's the one that gave His Son
for me that I could have life eternal
and for you.
And if you don't know that, you're going
to be frustrated and you're not only going
to be frustrated, it's going to be fatal,
twice.
You're going to live a miserable, frustrated life
in sin.
The devil, he's an absolute tormentor.
He'll give you a bottle of liquor and
say, if you'll drink this, we will have
fun.
And you drink it and you get a
little buzz and when the Jack Daniels is
empty and then your life's empty again.
Do you understand that principle?
He's a tormentor.
He'll give you a line of cocaine and
say, if you'll put this up your nose,
you will have fun.
We will party.
And you can snort a line of cocaine
and then put it up your nose and
you can have a high, get a buzz,
feel good, and then comes the depression and
the guilt and the wasted money and the
wasted life and the heartache and it's a
torment.
Do you understand that?
He specializes in tormenting life.
Without God, life is a frustration because you're
always trying to find something to make you
happy.
Get married, get a husband and then in
two years you think, how did I marry
him?
What was I drinking the night I went
with this guy?
And if I can just trade him in,
I can probably get happy.
And you go trade him in and you
take home a turkey.
I mean, he's got papers proving he's a
turkey.
All we do, I know people that are
in their 5th and 6th marriage when they
come and talk to me and finally get
right with the Lord.
And you know what they did?
They just swapped the problems for another set
of problems and another set of problems but
I'm telling you, you can stop that frustration.
You can get off that train and you
can get your life right with God.
Get your marriage in order with God's work.
And if this is your 10th marriage, you
can say number 10 is going to work.
And we're going to make it work.
And we're going to remove divorce from our
vocabulary and we're going to serve God.
Boy, this is good stuff.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe God wants us
to put a positive on the downturns of
life when they come.
And if you're here today as a Bible
believer, I believe one of the great tools
of our lives to live in front of
the Lord Jesus and in front of the
community that we're a part of is that
people can see that we handle problems and
downturns in life in a different way from
the world.
That we've got a positive attitude that yes,
I'm in pain.
Yes, I'm hurting.
Yes, this is a problem.
Yes, this is breaking my heart.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I've got the Lord in here with me.
And He'll never leave me and He'll never
forsake me.
Sometimes you're going to face some problems you
just don't know how to fix.
You don't know what to do.
But you can trust the Lord.
I heard a story earlier about a man
that got interested in classical music.
And he got all caught up in the
opera.
And he just, you know, he didn't even
realize what a wonderful world of music that
was.
And he finally just listened to tapes and
CDs and he started going to the opera.
And he fell in love with the voice.
He kept hearing this lady sing.
And it got so much a part of
his life, he started going every time they
had a performance, he had a ticket.
And he'd sing and he said, you know,
when she sings, it's just like I have
an out of body experience.
Her voice is just, I can't tell you
what it does to me.
I just feel like I'm floating on a
cloud.
Her voice, I can't, I'm in love with
her and I don't even know her.
Her voice mesmerizes me.
Her voice, I just can't think I can
live without her.
Just hear her sing.
He got all caught up with her voice.
He not only started going to the opera
and listening to her sing, but he got
bolder and he asked someone at work there,
he said, is she married?
Is she?
No, she's a single lady.
He said, you're kidding.
I'm in love with her.
And they said, you don't know her.
He said, I don't care.
She sings.
I'm in love with her voice.
He said, he started sending her cards.
Then he started sending her flowers.
Then he asked her out for a date
and a whirlwind romance ended up with a
great wedding and they got married in the
opera house.
And he was taking with him this magnificent
voice that just drove him to celestial heights
to hear her sing.
They left the opera house.
The limousine was waiting.
They drove to the resort and there they
went to the beautiful bridal suite for their
honeymoon.
She started to undress.
And he thought, I can't believe this is
my life, my dreams coming true.
She walked over to the dresser and she
took off her wig.
She reached up and took her teeth out
and put them in a cup.
She pulled off her fake eyelashes.
She took some Vaseline and washed her eyebrows
off.
And as she sat down on the bed
and started unscrewing her wooden leg, he stood
up and said, Sing, woman, sing!
Sing, woman, sing!
Sometimes you gotta sing.
Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that
there are some days in your life that
are bad.
And they can't even be frustrating.
But if we look at God's word, we
see that God wants us in the midst
of adversity to follow His commandments.
And to follow His word.
You see, verse number 7, Moses was 120
years old when he died.
His eyes, his eye was not dimmed, nor
his natural force abated.
Do you see that?
Moses died when he was 120 years old.
But he was not sick.
Did you notice verse 4, the Lord said
unto him, This is the land?
God's talking to Moses and said, This is
the land.
What was God saying?
He didn't say this is heaven, did He?
He did not say that this is the
place of no conflict.
He said this is the promised land.
This is the land of Canaan.
And when you're in the land of Canaan,
when you're in the promised land, you're still
in the land of battles.
There are giants in the land.
There are battles.
There are conflicts.
There's actually giants and walled cities in the
land.
This is not heaven.
A lot of people think if I get
saved and I start going to church, I'll
never have another problem.
Your problems are going to be there even
saved.
This isn't the promised, this isn't heaven that
we think about and the promises of God.
But a lot of people think, you know,
we're going to have heaven on earth, but
that's not exactly the truth.
You're going to have this promised land.
Are we going to have battles?
Yes.
Are we going to have conflicts?
Yes.
But we're going to have victory for the
battles.
Are we going to encounter sin?
We certainly are.
But God will give you grace to overcome
that sin.
Grace to win over the temptation.
The battles of the promised land are to
prove and to demonstrate, ladies and gentlemen, the
supernatural power of God.
God wants to demonstrate His power, so He
puts you in a land of giants, He
puts you in a land of battles, He
puts you in a land of walled cities
and obstacles, so He can prove how great
He is when He intercedes for you.
Now that's the truth of this book.
Moses died when he was 120.
There's something wrong.
In Bible days, Moses was a spring chicken.
These guys were living to 900 years.
And Moses died at 120.
Why did he die?
I believe he died early in life because
he was frustrated.
And I believe his frustrations killed him.
And I'm telling you this morning that if
you do not get the frustrations out of
your life, they can prove fatal.
If you're here and you're not safe, your
life is going to be one disaster after
another until you get right with God.
If you're here today and you're a believer
and your life is out of order, you're
going to be frustrated, you're going to be
up and down, you're going to be in
and out.
This church will not make you happy.
No church will make you happy.
Your husband won't make you happy, your wife
won't make you happy, your kids won't make
you happy, money won't make you happy, things
won't make you happy.
Why?
Because you're frustrated.
You're not where you need to be spiritually.
Now there's three main areas of study that
if you're making notes, I believe if you
will address these in the frustrations of life,
God will help you.
Number one, the impact of decisions.
The impact of decisions that you make.
Number two, the implications of death.
And number three, if you'll notice, the importance
of destiny.
Those will be applications that you can understand.
Let's go to the first one for a
moment.
If we look at the Word of God,
the impact of our decisions.
Our lives are not determined by our dreams.
But they are determined by our decisions.
There's a difference in dreaming and deciding.
There's a difference in that.
A lot of people will come to church
today and they will wish they were right
with the Lord.
They will wish they were reading their Bible.
They will wish they were praying every day.
And they will never worship today because they're
still wishing.
Do you understand that?
Your decision can impact your life.
How many of you could come up here
and tell this audience, radio, TV, and those
in the building, about a decision you made
that changed your life.
For good or for bad.
Could we not all come by here and
make a line and say, I'd like to
tell you about a day that I made
a decision that I wish I could do
over again.
I'd like to tell you about a party
I went to one night, wish I'd have
never gone in the building.
I'd like to tell you a place I
went to one night, wish I'd have never
gone there.
Can we not all walk by here and
talk about decisions we've made and wish that
we could address them again?
You know what we're guilty of many times?
We're guilty of wishing instead of worshiping.
And you know what happens, ladies and gentlemen?
God allows us sometimes to get in predicament,
so we'll get in fellowship with Him.
Because it'll drive us to Him.
Notice what happened in Exodus.
Back up in your Bible to Exodus chapter
17.
Exodus chapter 17.
Verse number 2.
Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and
said, Give us water that we may drink.
And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye
with me?
Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water, and
the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore
is this, that thou hast brought us up
out of Egypt to kill us and our
children and cattle with what?
Thirst.
They were fussing for water.
Agua.
Agua fresca.
H2O.
Water.
Did you hear what they just told the
preacher?
They said, Why didn't you leave us in
slavery in Egypt making bricks with Egyptians beating
our back?
They're free people now.
They're headed to the promised land.
They're entering into the bountiful blessings of God,
and they're fussing at Moses saying, Why didn't
you just leave us in Egypt?
We were happy down there making bricks 20
hours a day.
We liked them beating us on the back.
We liked our children being tormented in slavery.
Can you believe this?
That's what they're saying.
They're fussing.
And you know what?
If you're not careful, you'll find yourself doing...
Listen to me this morning.
If you're not careful, you may not ever
say it out loud, but if you're not
careful, you will be guilty of thinking in
your mind, God, I didn't have this much
stress on me when I was in the
world.
God, I didn't have this kind of problems
when I was living in sin.
I didn't have this kind of problems when
I was getting drunk every weekend and partying.
And now I'm trying to live right and
it seems like I'm living in the basement
of hell.
If we're not careful, we'll be telling a
holy God internally that we liked it in
Egypt better than we do in the promised
land.
And in Egypt I was a slave of
sin.
I couldn't do anything.
The devil controlled me.
He owned my soul and he owned my
being.
Addicted to the sins of life.
And the great liberator, the Lord Jesus Christ,
invaded the slave pit where I was bound
by Satan's chains and cut me loose and
saved my soul and changed me and my
mouth is such a complaining thing that I
can have a bad day in salvation in
the grace of God and start moaning and
saying, boy, I didn't have this much trouble
when I was a sinner.
Because you read that and you want to
think I'd never do that.
We do worse.
Because we're doing it to Jesus.
Most churches only like two kinds of pastors.
I found that out.
Traveling across the country, most churches only like
two kinds of pastors.
The pastor they used to have, they really
like him.
And the pastor they're going to get.
They really think he's going to be neat.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Moses is what they were stuck with.
And Moses had faults.
He's a human being.
But God had him there for a plan
and for a purpose.
Now you know what the crowd did?
They pushed Moses.
Moses was under peer pressure.
The crowd was critical.
They were complaining.
They were wishing they were still in Egypt.
Look what they did to him.
Turn over the numbers.
Numbers 20 and verse 7.
And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Take
the rod and gather thou the assembly together.
Moses, you take the church, gather them out
here.
Watch this.
And Aaron thy brother and what?
Speak ye unto the rock.
Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes
and it shall give forth.
There's a critical word right there.
Give forth what?
His water.
Not Moses water.
All right.
His water.
And thou shalt bring forth to them water
out of the rock.
So thou shalt give the congregation and their
beasts drink.
And Moses took the rod from before the
Lord as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together
before the rock.
And he said unto them, Here now you
rebels must we fetch you water out of
this rock.
And Moses lifted up his hand with his
rod.
He smoked the rock twice.
And the water came out abundantly.
And the congregation drank and their beasts also.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's wonderful.
God answered prayer.
Water came out of the rock.
They're no longer thirsty.
The beasts were given water.
The people were happy.
They all celebrated and thanked God for his
goodness.
But we've got a problem.
God said, Moses speak to the rock.
Did you catch that?
He said speak to the rock.
Now, the rock is a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now notice what Moses did.
Moses got frustrated.
Verse 11, he called them a bunch of
rebels.
He's on their case.
Here's what he's doing.
He's standing there with his staff and that
whole church is out there.
About 2 or 3 million of them.
4 million of them.
Moses is out here with the congregation and
the Lord and all the beasts.
They're all complaining, wishing we were Egypt.
He's walking up and down with his rod.
Aaron's with him, his associate pastor.
They're walking up and down saying, You want
water?
You want water?
All you do is whine.
You want to be back in Egypt?
You want the taskmaster?
You want water?
You don't believe God?
You don't believe his word?
He said this is the promised land.
He said he'll take you want water?
I'll give you water.
He took.
Bam!
He got mad.
He got frustrated.
And he smoked the rock.
God knew his frustration.
God knew they all needed water.
God released the water and took care of
them.
By the way, a guide, I was over
in Jordan not many months ago, and he
showed me a spring.
He said that they believe that's the same
rock that he hit is still giving water
today.
Over there in that desert, still pumping it
out.
And I said, I like that.
Because if God starts something, he can finish
it.
Moses got frustrated and aggravated.
He hit the rock.
The water came out.
But God had a little P.S. on
the lesson.
He said, son, I told you to speak
to the rock.
You got frustrated and hit it.
Now you can't go into the promised land.
And he died at 120 years old.
Because his frustrations.
This great man of God.
This great leader.
This man that God loved enough to give
the Ten Commandments to.
Does that not scare you?
If someone that great in God's eyes can
get so frustrated that God can...
That's it, Moses.
You see, that rock's a type of Jesus.
He said, Moses, you speak to the rock.
Moses hit it twice.
And what happens if we're not careful, we'll
complain, we'll fuss, we'll moan, we'll groan, and
we'll crucify Jesus the second time.
When Jesus has already paid it all.
He's paid for all of my problems, all
of my circumstances.
Jesus paid it all.
And when I'm frustrated, I need to be
reminded of what He's done.
So, obviously, my decisions can have an impact
on my life.
I must obey God.
And God wants my obedience.
He even says in His Word, He'd rather
have my obedience than my sacrifice.
And you know what we need today, ladies
and gentlemen?
We need tough, determined, born-again Bible believers
who will not run out on the fight
of life and say, as for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord.
We will be part of a local New
Testament church that'll make a difference in this
day and hour that we're living in.
And to do that, we're going to have
to have that determination that our decisions make
an impact.
Number two, moving quickly, the implications of death.
Do you focus on the negative side of
life, spiritual death?
Does your ego and your pride keep you
from a relationship of honesty with God and
with your family?
Are you living this life?
Your gift today from God is God went
by every one of these houses, the choir
members, and you know what God did to
everybody?
He said, I want to give you health
and life today, health and life today, health
and life, health and life, health and life,
health and life, health and life.
And He just went around to every choir
member and said, I'm going to give you
health and life today.
I want you to go sing my praises.
And then we'll fuss about having to put
on a robe, cooking these barbecue lights like
a rotisserie.
They feel like little chickens under the rotisserie
lights and have to go practice.
And yet God said, I love you so
much.
I'm going to give you health and life.
You can go sing my praises.
And you'll bring your own problems over here
and be frustrated with life.
Our wagons will be full with circumstances and
all God's trying to get us to do
cast all your cares upon me.
I care for you.
Does that get through?
Does that make any sense?
You see, I can live a life that
God's given me and never enjoy my life.
Have you ever thought about that?
In the midst of our problems we ought
to enjoy the life that we have the
privilege to live it to show the grace
of God.
I don't want to endure it.
I want to enjoy it.
There's a warning I must give to you
here about the implications of death.
There's three things.
I will not have time to address them
this morning.
But they'll be worthy of your own personal
study.
Because if you go back to Deuteronomy 34,
you'll see what happened here when Moses died
at age 120.
He died in the wilderness.
He didn't go to the promised land.
He didn't go what God had for him.
And here's three things that he did.
Number one, he had an unfinished task.
An unfinished task.
I don't know about you but I don't
want to meet Jesus after he's died for
me.
And Jesus looked at Ralph and said, Ralph,
you could have done so much more if
you had just finished your task.
But because you got frustrated with life you
looked at people rather than the Lamb of
God.
And you didn't finish your task.
I had for you.
Moses had an unfinished task.
Number two, he had an uncharted journey.
You don't want to wander around in life
and not know where you're going and what
you're doing.
But if you give your life to the
Lord, God will let you have a life
where you know what you're doing.
There will be a purpose, a design, an
order.
Not an uncharted trip.
So he had an unfinished task.
He had an uncharted trip.
Watch this part.
In Exodus, in Deuteronomy 34, where did it
say that God buried him?
In where?
How did it word it in the Bible?
And where does it say that this grave
is located?
Deceptor.
It's what?
Nobody knows.
So not only did he have an unfinished
task, an uncharted trip, he's got an unmarked
tomb.
An unmarked tomb.
God said, Moses, you messed up.
I'm going to cut your days short.
You're going to have an unmarked tomb.
And they're not even going to know where
I buried you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you today be
known for your testimony, not for your tomb.
Your testimony is what you're doing while you're
living.
Don't be known for your tomb.
Be known for your testimony.
So the implications are there.
And number three, not only the implications that
we have of death, and not only that
we can see here the fact that the
impact of my decisions when I make them
and what they're going to do, but the
third element of this is the importance of
destiny.
The importance of destiny.
You see, God told Moses, this is the
land.
This is the land of destiny.
This is the land I swore to give
to you.
I will give it to your seed.
Quitting and complaining can cost you, your children,
and your grandchildren.
If you complain, if you are a quitter,
you will find your children will be influenced
by your complaining and by your quitting.
Now, I know it's going to be quiet
right here, but I've been in church long
enough that I can go back 20 years
ago, 30 years ago, and I can tell
you about people that were unfaithful to the
house of God, always complaining.
They'd come for 3 or 4 months, then
they'd quit, then they'd get back in, be
out a year, come back in for 2
years, and I'm going to tell you, go
find them and go find their children today.
And their children are living the same lifestyle
in front of a holy God.
It's dangerous and deadly to be a quitter
or a complainer.
We'll teach our children the same.
I'm going to tell you something this morning.
We need to let the critics be critical
and let the carnal people be carnal, and
we need to be in love with Jesus
and keep our eyes focused and fixed upon
Him.
And by God's will, we can say, let's
do God's destiny, God's plan, His order as
a sovereign and a holy God.
Frank Sinatra used to sing a song.
I did it what?
My way.
I'm going to tell you, I'm going to
sing a song.
I did it God's way.
All God wants is me to obey His
Word.
God didn't call me to be famous.
God called me to be faithful.
And I'm just going to do it God's
way.
But I'm going to tell you something.
The responsibility that we face is not to
do it man's way, but to do it
God's way.
And to do it according to the Word
of the Lord.
And if you don't do it God's way,
if you start doing it man's way or
what this thinks or that one thinks, then
you're going to end up frustrated.
But if you do it God's way, you
can just keep on shouting, keep on smiling,
just keep on preaching the Word, happy about
your journey, rejoicing in the good things of
God, and shouting because you did it God's
way.
Now let me tell you something.
Ladies and gentlemen, your life can be frustrating.
There can be two reasons for your frustration.
Number one, you've never been saved.
Number two, you are saved and you got
things out of order in your life.
But I'm going to tell you this morning,
according to the Word of God, that you
need to be warned that frustrations can be
fatal.
And if you feel frustrated, if you feel
worried, then you need to bring that frustration
to the Lord.
You don't need to get angry and smite
the rock.
The enemy's not God.
Because all you're going to do is smite
the rock.
And that will be a frustration that will
be a fatality.
I'm telling you this morning there are people
in this auditorium listening to the sound of
my voice on the radio, watching on television.
You feel like your life is a blender.
You feel like you're living in a tornado.
You feel like that everything you touch crumbles.
And it's a disaster.
And the reason is you've never been saved
by the grace of God.
Because you can turn over a new leaf.
You can say, I'm going to do better.
I'm going to get my stuff together.
I'm going to get my act together.
I'm going to do right.
I'm going to have this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do good.
And you can start out, and in six
weeks, all your plans, all your dreams.
Sometimes it doesn't take six weeks.
Sometimes six hours.
Just let the wrong buddy come by with
the right temptation, and here you go again.
And you get frustrated.
But I'm going to tell you this morning,
you can come to Jesus, and Jesus can
save you, forgive your sins, and you can
start your life over.
And you can have a new beginning in
Him.
Number two, if you're here today as a
Bible believer, and you're disappointed in life, and
you're fighting frustrations, you're finding yourself, how do
I know if I'm frustrated?
Well, you'll find yourself, you're starting to be
critical.
You're starting to be carnal.
There's not that love relationship, that joy.
You've lost the smile off your face.
You're not excited about the journey anymore.
Then, we need as Bible believers to say,
God, I need you to help me with
the frustrations of life.
I want to serve you with joy and
victory.
I don't want to end up like Moses
in an unmarked tomb with an uncharted course
and an unfinished task.